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A77411 A brief collection of some memorandums: or, Things humbly offered to the consideration of the members of the great convention and of the succeeding Parliament. 1689 (1689) Wing B4555A; ESTC R173274 9,364 15

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power when setled Yet may it not be judged meet by this Convention in their erecting a new building to lay such foundations while the sense of their danger and deliverance is upon them as may prevent the return of the evils complained of and prevent them more effectually if God be with us than an act of Parliament can do And the humble petition is That it may please this great Assembly not to leave the Protestant Dissenters bound as Felix did Paul but to make Liberty in matters of Religion for them I meddle not with others though I with all men well I say Liberty for Protestant Dissenters a Stone in the Foundation of the New Building than which as the petitioner believeth never will any man find a Squarer Fitter Stronger better to lay in the Foundation of a Government And if this great Convention shall be pleased to do this which it may be harder to get done in another time and way 't is already manifest by the Prince's Declaration and otherwise that to His Highness it would be very acceptable And why should not His Government if that shall be agreed on be hereby Endeared to all the Protestants And does not the Condition and Safety of the Nation require an Union of Protestants not by the harsh and impossible way of an Enforced Uniformity but by a Gracious Liberty Can it be reasonably supposed that Dissenting Protestants will be able chearfully to Engage in their Trades by which the Riches of King and Kingdom are encreased while they are liable every day to undoing Penalties Worshipping of God And will it be a fair Encouragement for them to venture their Lives in the High places of the Field it may be in a Foreign Nation to remember that if they escape Death and return Home the next place they shall lodge in may be a Gaol for Life upon a Capias Excommunicatum and that their Estates may be pulled to pieces upon the Statute of twenty pound a month for not coming to Church or some other Penal Laws And the Petitioner adds his fear that if care be taken only for our Civil Liberties and no pitty shewed to them who have been so long oppressed in their Spiritual or Religious Liberties God's controversy will not yet be at an end with us And shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy Are we stronger than he His late works shew we are not 2. To the ensuing Parliament The humble Petition is That the Government would be pleased to Repeal all the Penal Laws in so far as concerns Protestant Dissenters and that none of them may hereafter suffer for not coming to Church or other Non-Conformity or for Worshipping God in their own Meetings according to their own best light and understanding of God's Word particularly that the Laws against Conventicles the Five-mile Act the Statute of the 35th of Queen Elizabeth a Repeal of which last once already passed both Houses with other the like may be Repealed II. Thus far as to Popery somewhat more is added as to Slavery and the means of preventing it Upon the Restauration of King Charles the Second there seems to have been a Bending of the Stick to the other Extreme and that He coming in without Terms the Prerogative gained much upon the Liberties of the People and has been upon the gaining hand ever since Here is a Gracious and Magnanimous Prince no Friend to Arbitrary Despotic Government Were it not good to procure the repeal of some late Laws which trench upon the Rights of the Subject and the passing of some Laws for their preservation I. One of the chief Fences against Arbitrary Government is the frequent assembling of free Parliaments There are Laws in force for this Two Statutes appoint a Parliament every Year v. 4 Ed. 3.14 and 36 Ed. 3.10 There was also a Law for a Triennial Parliament made in the time of King Charles the first which was repealed if indeed it be repealed for the matter is doubtful and another act for a Triennial Parliament which some esteemed a New Nothing passed in its room 1. Were it not good that for the next Reign there be a Parliament once in a Year and afterwards the old Act for a Triennial Parliament being revived to take place and be observed Frequent Parliaments would make Ministers of State and Judges if any of them should attempt to winde up the Government to a Tyranny afraid of a Day of Account in this World though of that in the next they should be secure 2. And were it not good that this expensive and vile way of compassing a Seat in the House of Commons in Parliament by Hiring the Votes of the Countrey and making people drunk should be laid aside And that whosoever shall in a County spend above or in a City Burrough or Cinqueport above to procure or reward Suffrages should be disabled to Sit and the matter being well proved before a Committee for Elections the Election should be void 3. We have had an Instance of purchasing the Liberties and Money of the Nation by Pensions paid to Members in a Parliament which Posterity will know by a Name taken from that practice Is it not fit that the like be prevented for the future by the Highest Penalties upon the Givers and Receivers of such Pensions 4. Were it not good to appoint Penalties upon Sheriffs and other Officers who shall make false and undue Returns of Members of the House of Commons in Parliament higher than any Law hath yet appointed and more proportionable to so grand and pernicious an Offence with a way for the more easie Levying of such Penalties 5. And if the Privilege of Parliament hath suffered any diminution in the Case of Fitz-Harris or of them who had and pleaded Pardons to defeat impeachments made in Parliament by the Commons of England for High Treason Provision may be made that such things may not for the future be drawn into Example 6. Whether something should not be done if it shall be found needful to reconcile the King's Negative Voice to Bills in Parliament with his Coronation-Oath whereby he swears to consent to or confirm Laws quas Vulgus Elegerit 7. What if Power were given by Law to the Speaker or any Committee of the House of Commons to administer an Oath in matters concerning the Privileges of their own House II. Since the Restauration there hath been such a Determination of the Question which was disputed between King Charles the First and the first Long-Parliament touching the Militia as in effect makes the Government in proximâ potententiâ at least of becoming Arbitrary as some think With respect to that may it be considered 1. Whether it be not meet by Law to Limit the number of the King's Guards 2. To provide against a Standing Army within the Kingdom by Indispensable Laws making it High Treason for any Commanders Officers or Souldiers besides the King 's allowed Guards to enter into such a Standing Army within the
Kingdom without Consent of Parliament And that no Army be raised or continued without Act of Parliament 3. To put the County Militia's into such hands and such a frequent exercise as may make them with Gods blessing the ordinary and sufficient guard of the Nation And while the present condition of the Kingdom requires the continuance of Standing Forces to repel a 〈◊〉 Invasion that they be continued with the greatest caution against it's making a Praecedent and being drawn into future practice and with such Discipline as may prevent their oppressing and corrupting the People as the late Army did III. In regard divers evils were judged to have arisen from the delivering of Petitions in Anno 〈◊〉 c. by great multitudes another extreme seems to have been incurred whereby a just and reasonable Liberty of the Subject is abridged if not taken away by a Statute since the Restauration against Petitioning And yet when it served to promote a design how were tumultuary Addresses and Abhorrences encouraged to the running down of Parliaments by whom the mind of the Kingdom should have been made known In this case were it not good to review the Statute of King Charles the Second against Petitioning and settle that matter according to right IV. It was foretold by a late great Judge the ornament of his Profession of his Age and of his Nation that Slavery would be introduced by Westminster-Hall In this case may it be considered 1. Whether it be not fit that some publique Justice be done upon the betrayers of the Kingdoms Liberties as of old on Hubert de Burgh Tresilian Belknap c. more lately on the Judges who gave their opinions for Ship-money Impunity gives a License to offend 2. That such persons only be hereafter made Judges or other Dignitarys in the Law as are duly qualified with Knowledge in the Laws Wisdom Justice Courage and if it be possible with the Fear of God That there may not be cause to revive the late waggish representation of twelve Puppets in the Robes of Judges speaking out whatsoever the manager behind the Curtain made them speak 3. That such Judges may hold their Places quamdiu se bene gesserint as heretofore and not durante bene-placito only V. Calling in the Charters by the known Methods of Quo Warranto's Sollicitations and Threats is generally acknowledged to have been a mean of bringing the Kingdom into a very ill condition It were easy to dilate upon the mischiefs Upon this two wishes are humbly propounded 1. That the Charters the foundations of many Generations that of London especially may all of them of be restored to their full Vigour by an Act of Parliament with provision against the like Invasion in time to come 2. That they in whose Heads this evil Counsel and Device first grew if living may make Attonement to the Kingdom for this by better Counsels and Services for the future VI. The dispensing Power as used is accounted so terrible an Engine and so lately Felt and Feared That the Limiting and Setling of that according to reason will certainly not be forgotten They who by their Judgments and Arguments made it pass in an Extraordinary Extent for Legal Prerogative do not deserve well either of King or Kingdom VII The Examination of the Great point concerning the Prince of Wales while things are fresh and in memory seems to desire a Parliament That the truth of the matter may be found out and made apparent to the Satisfaction of the present and of the future Age. And if there have been any Leagues with France against Protestant Religion were it not good to have them made manifest A few more Wishes shall put an End to these Memrandums 1. That if in this Convention the Nation meets in its highest Capacity and Original Power i.e. Whereby they are able to choose to themselves a Government They would do all the Good they can and not leave all to an uncertain Success in future Parliaments If this Convention can do any thing cannot it make Laws truly Fundamental and which shall have the same Firmitude and continuance as the Government it sets up And may Liberty for Protestant-Dissenters as before be one of those Fundamentals Amen 2. May the Deaths of the Late Earl of Essex and of others whom publick Fame reports to have been Murdered be Enquired of and the Guilty of such transcendent Offences it any be brought to punishment to the Glory of God and the Freedom or the Kingdom from such Blood-guiltiness Alas the Nation contracts the guilt of too much Blood almost at every Assizes in one place or other it being ordinary for Voluntary Homicide contrary to God's Law to go unpunished especially where the Offenders are Persons of Quality or Estates or are Souldiers And this Impunity is caused much by an ill Distinction between Murder and Voluntary Man-slaughter And sometimes by a Bribed Clerks drawing the Indictment not Hanging fashion as one of them used to say As for Murder when it ought to be upon the Statute of King James the First against Stabbing c. the other having no Weapon drawn And too often by Pardons procured by some Courtier or Man of Interest to the Drawing as some fear of Guilt upon the Throne 3. May the Subject not be over-charged with Oaths and Declarations The use whereof has been little but to Entangle the Conscientious When it was required that we should declare it utterly unlawful on any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against any Commissioned by the King some very Loyal Subjects who scrupled it presaged that it was possible Irish Papists and such like might be Commissioned and that in such Case this Declaration might be a Renunciation of a Law of Nature which Allows and Requires self-preservation And how are men enforced now to distinguish upon the Word Commission or Commissioned I heard a Grave man say that he had made it his Observation and produced divers Instances to confirm it That scarce any thing was ever publickly sworn against by a Nation but it afterwards came in 4. May the Late Lord Russels Posterity and the Earl of Essex's if need be be restored in Blood and Honour by Act of Parliament 5. May Dr. Oates Mr. Joh●son c. Be remembred 6. And Lastly That all these things being honestly and innocently intended none of them may be Offensive or ill taken FINIS LONDON Printed in the Year 1689.